Squad Busters
Game
Documents about Squad Busters
Inside Squad Busters’ $150 Million Experiment
The launch of Squad Busters represents a significant pivot in Supercell’s historical strategy, moving away from its traditional, cautious soft-launch model toward a high-budget, cinematic global release.
- Supercell invested approximately $150 million into Squad Busters, including $65 million for user acquisition, $40 million for marketing and talent, and $40 million for development.
- Despite generating 60 million downloads, the game yielded only $70 million to $80 million in net revenue, failing to achieve long-term commercial sustainability due to poor retention.
- The project marked a strategic pivot for Supercell, moving away from its traditional, cautious soft-launch model toward a high-budget, cinematic global release to test organizational risk-taking.
Supercell Revenue by Year (2015 – 2025)
Supercell has established itself as a dominant force in the mobile gaming industry, generating over $13.58 billion in total lifetime revenue as of 2026.
- Supercell’s annual revenue has experienced a long-term downward trend since its peak in 2015 ($1.9 billion), hitting a low of $788.5 million in 2023 before rebounding to $1.45 billion in 2024.
- Brawl Stars is the company’s most volatile asset, experiencing a significant resurgence in 2024 with $678.5 million in revenue, more than doubling its 2023 performance.
- Clash of Clans remains the company’s primary revenue anchor, consistently serving as the top-earning title for over a decade despite a gradual decline from its $1.36 billion peak in 2015.
Squad Busters 2.0 and mo.co: What We Learned from Supercell's Experimental Era
Supercell is currently navigating a transitional phase characterized by aggressive experimentation with new titles, specifically Squad Busters and mo.co.
- Supercell is actively testing new growth strategies by bypassing traditional soft-launch protocols to bridge the gap between casual accessibility and midcore depth.
- Both Squad Busters and mo.co have failed to meet the high performance benchmarks established by Supercell’s historical portfolio.
- Squad Busters has pivoted its monetization strategy away from gameplay-affecting consumables toward a midcore-oriented framework.
Supercell 2024 Financial Results
Supercell achieved record financial performance in 2024, reporting $3 billion in revenue and $947 million in EBITDA, representing year-over-year growth of 77% and 78%, respectively.
- Supercell reported record 2024 financial results with $3 billion in revenue, representing a 77% increase over 2023.
- EBITDA grew by 78% year-over-year to $947 million, with the company shifting to reporting figures 'before deferral' for greater transparency.
- Brawl Stars served as a primary growth driver, with the six-year-old title seeing significant increases in players, engagement, and revenue.
How Supercell Boosts LiveOps with IP Collaborations
Supercell utilizes high-profile intellectual property collaborations as a primary engine for revenue growth and player retention across its established mobile portfolio.
- Supercell uses high-profile IP collaborations like Godzilla, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Transformers to drive revenue and player retention in mature titles such as Brawl Stars and Squad Busters.
- These partnerships function as sophisticated LiveOps events that convert static environments into time-limited experiences to incentivize active participation and re-acquire lapsed users.
- The studio integrates external brands through deep gameplay mechanics, including themed game modes, specialized seasonal passes, and gacha-based reward systems, rather than relying on superficial cosmetic additions.
4 Reasons Why Squad Busters Suffers While Brawl Stars Soars
The mobile game Squad Busters is currently underperforming relative to Supercell’s established hit, Brawl Stars.
- Squad Busters is projected to generate over $100 million in its first year, yet it faces sharp declines in downloads and daily active users following its global launch.
- The primary cause of the game's underperformance is a premature global release that bypassed a traditional, iterative soft launch, preventing necessary refinement of core mechanics.
- Squad Busters suffers from a lack of gameplay diversity and depth, failing to match the evolving modes and strategic complexity that drive long-term retention in Brawl Stars.
Supercell’s Biggest Year: Squad Busters and SuperFest 2024
Supercell’s recent performance in the mobile gaming and esports sectors highlights the company’s strategic focus on cross-platform engagement and community-driven growth.
- Brawl Stars is Supercell’s dominant live-streaming title, accounting for 69.5 million hours watched over the past 12 months, which represents 56% of the company's total viewership.
- Supercell is consolidating its esports presence by hosting SuperFest 2024 in Helsinki this November, featuring the world championship finals for Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Brawl Stars in a single venue.
- Squad Busters achieved 40 million pre-registrations and generated 839,000 hours watched during its full release week, followed by 2.6 million hours watched since launch.
State of the Mobile Market: Q2 2024
The global mobile games market experienced a period of stabilization and shifting genre dominance in the second quarter of 2024.
- Global mobile game spending reached $19.7 billion in Q2 2024, marking a 4% year-over-year increase and the fourth consecutive quarter of growth.
- Strategy games became the top-grossing genre for the first time since 2017, generating $4.149 billion in revenue with a 12% year-over-year increase.
- Total mobile game downloads fell 6.4% to 12.6 billion, reaching the lowest volume recorded since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Squad Busters One Month Later: Down, but Not Out
The launch of Squad Busters represents a significant underperformance for Supercell, highlighting the risks of bypassing traditional soft-launch procedures in mobile game development.
- Supercell’s Squad Busters underperformed despite reaching 40 million cumulative downloads in its first month, as the volume was driven by pre-registration incentives rather than organic interest.
- The game suffered from poor conversion rates and low-quality user acquisition, with a high concentration of downloads originating from Tier 3 regions.
- By bypassing traditional soft-launch procedures in favor of a 'scorched earth' marketing strategy, the studio failed to establish the data-driven KPIs necessary for long-term user retention.
Squad Busters: Why a 50% Revenue Drop Doesn't Bust the New Formula
Squad Busters represents a strategic pivot for Supercell, aiming to capture a broad casual audience by synthesizing elements of MOBA, Battle Royale, and Roguelike genres into accessible, four-minute gameplay sessions.
- Squad Busters experienced a 50% decline in daily revenue during its first month, signaling early-stage friction despite the game's innovative genre-blending approach.
- The game utilizes aggressive, Match-3-inspired monetization tactics, such as win streaks and consumables, to drive immediate engagement.
- Long-term retention is currently hindered by a tedious progression system, a lack of robust social features or clans, and a season pass that fails to provide sufficient perceived value.
Tencent Added Over $90 Billion in Market Value Following Success of DnF Mobile
Tencent has experienced a significant financial resurgence in the first half of 2024, adding $91 billion to its market capitalization since January 1.
- Tencent added $91 billion to its market capitalization in the first half of 2024, representing a 28% increase in share price.
- The launch of Dungeon & Fighter Mobile in China is the primary growth driver, generating $270 million in iOS player spending within its first month.
- Analysts project Dungeon & Fighter Mobile could reach $2 billion in revenue by the end of 2024, potentially becoming Tencent's most successful new release in five years.
Squad Busters Tops $28 Million in Player Spending
The launch of Supercell’s mobile title, Squad Busters, has proven to be a significant commercial success, driven by an aggressive user acquisition strategy.
- Supercell's Squad Busters has generated over $28 million in global player spending since its May 29, 2024, release.
- The game achieved over 44.3 million downloads across iOS and Android, with the US, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, and South Korea serving as its top five markets.
- Supercell was the top brand by digital ad spend in the US from May 29 to May 31, 2024, across platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube.
Companies behind it
As the documents state it.